THE PRESS ON LOST GIRLS!

March 24, 2007

If you need convincing on Lost Girls, a ton of articles, reviews, and interviews with Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie have already hit the internet regarding this release. All are brilliantly informative about the project, so be sure to check them out by clicking on one of the links here:

and the first (and one of the best interviews out there),CINESCAPE:Pt1 &Pt2.

Here's what people are saying about Lost Girls:

PER DIAMOND COMICS & DIAMOND BOOKS, LOST GIRLS WAS THE 13TH LARGEST GROSSING GRAPHIC NOVEL OF 2006 IN THE DIRECT MARKET, AND THE 3RD LARGEST GROSSING GRAPHIC NOVEL OF 2006 IN THE BOOK TRADE.

NAMED ONE OF "THE TOP 10 BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS OF THE YEAR" BY AMAZON.COM

NAMED ONE OF "THE TOP 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR" BY THE VILLAGE VOICE. "A beautiful dirty book … Lost Girls is to erotic literature what Moore's now classic 1987 Watchmen was to the superhero scene." -- The Village Voice

NAMED IN THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE COMICS JOURNAL.
"Together, Moore and Gebbie remind us what the comics medium is capable of, the things it can do better than any other story-telling form. Words and pictures fit together, overlap and collide -- sometimes ironically, sometimes emphatically. … I was prepared, picking up Lost Girls, for taboo-shattering fantasies, for new interpretations of beloved classics, and for complex stories and artful images. But I was not expecting to encounter a treatise concerning beauty, art, freedom, imagination and opposition to war. That Moore could make children's tales pornographic is not all that remarkable; that he succeeds in elevating pornography to the level of literature -- perhaps, to philosophy -- truly is. … Above all, Lost Girls is a reminder that our desire matters. If the imagination isn't free, then nothing else is, either." - Kristian Williams, The Comics Journal

NAMED ONE OF "THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS OF THE YEAR" BY THE PUBLISHERS WEEKLY COMICS WEEK CRITICS POLL: "What's more surprising? That Moore and Gebbie decided to explore the decidedly 'adult' exploits of some of literature's favorite young ladies, or that the result is as elegant and thought provoking as it is titillating?" - Publishers Weekly

NAMED "BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR" BY THE METRO TORONTO NEWS (CANADA): "Easily the most groundbreaking work of 2006." -- Jonathan P. Kuehlein, Metro Toronto News

ALAN MOORE NAMED B"EST WRITER (INDEPENDENT)" & LOST GIRLS NAMED "BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL (MATURE)" OF THE YEAR BY BROKENFRONTIER.COM.

NAMED "THE ESSENTIAL GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR" BY THE COMICS WAITING ROOM: "Top Shelf bet the company's future on Moore and Gebbie's rumination on Victorian Era pornography and sexual mores, and drew blackjack. … No matter how you feel about it, [Lost Girls] was certainly the most vital and important thing to hit the medium this year, and nothing drew more attention." -- Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

NAMED ONE OF "THE TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR" BY EDWARD CHAMPION (EDRANTS.COM) "It is a rare talent who can both titillate and cause one to become slightly uncomfortable at the same time. … Whether one agrees or is titillated by the fantasies contained with Lost Girls is not the point. The idea here … is that humans are in the dark about their true “deviant” nature, pushing these away into fairy tales … but sometimes not giving themselves the liberty to accept fantasy in their quotidian existences. What then is the true pornographic act? Banning tales that are honest about dark human impulses or denying that they exist? Like the narrator-as-guide that William T. Vollmann often employs in his work, Melinda Gebbie’s beautiful artwork serves as a safety net for the troubled reader, ensuring that the universe that the reader is entering here is a safe and valid place. Moore and Gebbie accomplish all this without coming across as shock artists. I was jesting earlier this year when I suggested that Lost Girls was "fun for the whole family," but I believe anyone looking to uproot their notions of what is considered “abnormal” might want to give this handsome set a chance. -- Edward Champion, edrants.com

"As an exercise in the formal bounds of pure comics, Lost Girls is remarkable, as good as anything Moore has done in his career. ... Whatever you call it, there has never been anything quite like this in the world before, and I find myself extraordinarily pleased that someone of Moore's ability actually has written that sort of comics for adults." -- Neil Gaiman

"Mesmerizing and audacious, Alan Moore's avowedly-pornographic opus is a captivating call-to-arms for artistic freedom of expression as well as a forthright attempt to re-imbue pornography with the artistic standards that it cast aside long ago. … Moore has created a book that deserves to be ranked alongside the likes of his masterworks Watchmen and From Hell. Like those books, he has once again created a comic the like of which has not been seen before ”“ and it’s truly been worth the wait. Grade: A" -- Danny Graydon, Variety

"I just received your amazing book. This is unlike anything else I've ever seen: intriguing, entrancing and erotic too. It really is fantastic. I suddenly feel very lazy by comparison. Congratulations on an epoch-making -- or at least 'epoch-shaking' -- piece of work." -- Brian Eno

"Lost Girls is nothing less than a thoughtful, lush, dense and at times surprisingly touching examination of our sexual mores and our sexual imagination in particular. It's a beautiful book that explores the fine line between fantasy and reality and what happens when we start mistaking one for the other." -- Chris Mautner, The Patriot-News

"This is a remarkable trilogy. It's by turns filthier than a Penthouse Letter, erotic as Anais Nin, and beautiful and provocative as the best of graphic novels. The fine artwork and writing are beautifully matched, even seeming at times to vie for attention -- each trying to outdo the other for virtuosity." -- Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

"Seldom has the delicate balance of sensuality and danger been so skillfully maintained ... Moore takes what could too easily become a 'cautionary tale' and opts for sensual redemption ... I've always been slightly bored by most porn and most love stories, feeling no fiction can be as satisfying as the actual experience. But did this book succeed in appealing to my higher nature, intellectually and spiritually? Did it change my mind about a few things? Most importantly, did it get me off...? O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! -- Maggie Bloodstone, Seattle Gay News

"Let's skip the foreplay and get to the point: 16 years in the making, Lost Girls, the latest graphic novel from Alan Moore, is pretty astounding. It's smart, it's bold, and it unites words and art as only the best graphic novels can. Something wholly original, Lost Girls has given small comics publisher Top Shelf Productions (jointly operated in Portland and Atlanta) respect as well as notoriety. For everything it represents…not to mention its own merits…Lost Girls is one of the few must-read books of the year." -- Erik Henriksen, Portland Mercury

"Moore's writing is clever, insightful, and layered with winning characterizations of aristocratic Alice, hoyden Dorothy, and repressed bourgeois Wendy. And his prose is matched by Gebbie's sumptuous art, with Matisse-like color and design that simultaneously suggest childhood and the fantasy elements of adult sexuality. This lavish confection is intellectually, aesthetically, and erotically intriguing, with no holds barred. For adult collections only." -- Martha Cornog, Library Journal

"So realistic it feels as if you knew the erotic mythology all along in your bones." -- Susie Bright

"The brilliance of the book is that it isn't harmless. Moore and Gebbie aren't just doing a giggly porno version of classic children's stories, they're retelling them with the fantasy removed, replaced by the coming-of-age experiences that were previously rendered as metaphor. … Lost Girls' constant pull between arousal and disgust also makes for a reading experience that's as emotional as it is intellectual." -- Noel Murray, The Onion

"I think Lost Girls is not only one of the best things Alan Moore has ever written, I also think it’s a fairly important work of art judged by any standard. It’s genuinely dangerous. … One of the most human and heartfelt pieces of work of his career." -- Moriarty, Ain't It Cool News

"Lost Girls is to erotic literature what Moore's now classic 1987 Watchmen (with Dave Gibbons) was to the superhero scene. Each busts the frames of its respective genre with formal precision; each reflects upon its own ways and means through books within the book; and, most importantly, each kicks great writing into hyperdrive with dense and resonant imagery. -- Richard Gehr, The Village Voice

"Moore and Gebbie might very well have split the atom here. Filmmakers have for decades tried to make truly artistic smut and failed miserably. Moore and Gebbie succeed. ... a stone masterpiece … a stunning narrative achievement." -- Joe Gross, Decibel Magazine

"Lost Girls stands out not only for its expressive explicitness, but for its measured, literate prose and evocative period pastel drawings depicting the sexual adventures of three icons of classic children's literature -- Alice from "Alice in Wonderland," Wendy from "Peter Pan" and Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" -- now grown up and curious. … Lost Girls represent the best comics has to offer." -- Gary C. W. Chun, The Honolulu Star Bulletin

"The word "fantasy" carries its full erotic implications when applied to Alan Moore's bewitching masterpiece, Lost Girls. … This Kama Sutra for the comic -book set should elicit fervent reactions not only for its sly premise but also for its intellectual commentary on free speech, Western prudishness and the futility of war." -- Kirkus Reviews

"In a frank and purposeful effort of madness and genius, as only he is capable of, comic book icon Alan Moore, along with gifted artist and fiancée Melinda Gebbie, uses Lost Girls to explore the nature of the human sexual imagination by means of three familiar fantasy characters … Alice (Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland), Dorothy (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz) and Wendy (Peter Pan). The result is clearly a work of pornography … one that is spectacularly literate, exquisitely illustrated and without doubt one of the most groundbreaking comic book works of the decade." -- Jonathan P. Kuehlein, Metro Toronto News

"Lost Girls is one of the most important works of pornography of our time and another example of the graphic novel as a powerful literary medium." -- The Geek Zine

"An affecting parable about the importance of fantasy and the consequences of stifling sexual imagination." -- Gwynne Watkins, Nerve

"A meditation on the consequences of repression and imaginative failure (such as war) and an honest, artistic attempt to bring healthy, erotic discussion to the forefront of literature, "Lost Girls" is a sure-fire classic." -- Dorman T. Shindler, St. Louis Today

"The distinction between what's allowable as fantasy and what's taboo as reality is one that is at the heart of Lost Girls ... It's a pro-sex, antiwar metaphor that speaks of the death of Art Nouveau and other aesthetic achievements of the so-called "beautiful era," and symbolizes the end of the Edwardian period's relative cultural liberalism and the rise of fascism in Europe." -- Eric Hansonm Star Tribune.com

"Lost Girls is a work of art, as beautiful in its execution as it is defiant in its subject matter. Place it next to the Kama Sutra or De Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom on your shelf." -- Kurt Amacker, Cinescape

"A mighty achievement … a multi-layered tale of how real world innocence gets eroded … examining the complex psyches of its three titular protagonists through the lens of sexuality and throwing themes of family, war, and love into the mix." -- Eric Lorberer, Rain Taxi

"What distinguishes the work from being nothing more than beautifully illustrated smut is the care and attention paid to the characters and their story. The reader is carried along as they grow and learn, discovering truths about themselves and others, shedding secrets and finding comfort in discovering that they are not alone. … On many levels, Moore's Lost Girls is an exploration of the imagination in whole: the vividness and multiplicity of the sexual imagination contrasted with the cold and unimaginative brutality so often seen in war." -- Jason A. Zwiker, Charleston City Paper

"Sexiest Comic Book Ever. … For Moore, the project is the most daring of a career in which he has done more than any other writer to legitimize comics books' claims to literary worth." -- Nick Dent, Black+White

"A seismic wave through the art of erotic literature and comics." -- Jean-Emmanuel Dubois, French Revue de Modes

"Moore and Gebbie's Lost Girls qualifies as neither lustful nor licentious but rather as luminous -- potentially the preeminent graphic novel of the first decade of the new millenium." -- Bryan A. Hollerbach, Playback

"The symbolism and subtexts of these books are sensitively explored by Alan Moore and his partner, artist Melinda Gebbie, who redefine the tired pornography formula into an elegant, arousing celebration of the discoveries and pleasures of sex." -- Paul Gravett, Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life

"Lost Girls is about the most thoughtful rumination on sexuality and fantasy as I have ever experienced. … It's an unblinking, unblinkered insight into human nature, and Gebbie's artwork is a match for Moore's script; lovely, frank and poetic. … One of the most important graphic novels yet created." -- Alan David Doane, Comic Book Galaxy

"Lost Girls is Alan Moore's most revolutionary work, designed to smash assumptions, crash barricades. … In this very bold, very human saga, Moore has created a thesis on sexuality that stands with his finest work." -- Nik Dirga, Blog Critics

"If this is porn, it's the thinking person's porn… a provocative, supremely confident work of art." -- Web Behrens, Playboy.com

"A meditation on sex, death and war that's as hard-hitting as it is honest … It's as brutally frank and transgressive a fiction can be about the mechanisms of producing fantasy, in reality and hyperreality, for mass consumption, whether you're talking orgasm or wargasm." -- Scott Thill, Morphizm

"Quite a treasure. … Normally, one would advise a reader to stay away from this trilogy if they don’t digest sexually explicit material too well, but in this case, don’t be scared. This well-crafted and beautiful narrative was written for you in the first place." -- Michael Steffen, Slug Mag

"This comic has driven me to complex thought, to patterns and ideas staying fixed in my own mental space that will stay with me. I will quote this book in conversation, I know it. … it has affected me as much as any fiction can. … Melinda Gebbie and Alan Moore's greatest achievement in the comics field." -- Rich Johnston, Lying In The Gutters

"Lost Girls is an extremely ambitious undertaking in just about every way imaginable." -- Brian Heater, New York Press

"Lost Girls is a must for anybody studying comics academically or seeking to learn to write from a master of the art form … The author and the illustrator succeed in crafting a novel that comments upon sexually repressive societies, taboos, and art in general. But, where Watchmen may have been the end-all be-all of superhero comics, Lost Girls only breaks open the floodgates and thrusts sexuality into the forefront, leaving future authors and artists to (ideally) explore this new territory without hindrance." -- S. P. MacIntyre, Monsters and Critics

"Lost Girls arrives as a work of eccentric genius, at times earthbound by its lascivious formula, yet capable of flights of sensual fancy… Moore reveals keen instincts for the ways that pubescent reveries and classic fantasy tales can turn into a dreamy, Freudian blur. " -- Curt Holman, Creative Loafing

"Lost Girls is unapologetically pornographic and undeniably powerful. Graphic novels don't get any more graphic than this." -- Steve Duin, The Oregonian

"Lost Girls is the sublime proof … that you can make stimulatingly graphic sexual acts graphically stimulating and yet retain the mystery and beauty inherent in the emotionally charged context." -- Alistair Fitchett, PLAN B Magazine

"Their blending of the elegant with the really, really dirty is an admirable achievement that pays porn the respect of believing it's worth doing well." -- Charles Taylor, The Boston Phoenix

"No matter how offended one might be at some of Lost Girls’ content, it’s impossible to write the work off as pure filth. It’s too rich with intellectual and artistic subtext for that, with Freudian undertones and issues of class, censorship and sexual repression filling the pages. It also makes a poignant antiwar statement." -- Heath McCoy, The Calgary Herald

"Two giants of comics put the graphic back in graphic novels with Lost Girls" -- Richard von Busack, Metro Active

"The end of innocence as told through pornographic stories about children’s characters. Only Moore." -- Wil Moss, The City Paper

"[Lost Girls] sets a new standard for sequential art in its depth and complexity." -- Jeff Loew, Broken Frontier

"The work voices an impassioned defense of artistic freedom that stresses that fiction and fantasies aren’t the same as actual events and behavior." -- Gordon Flagg, Booklist

"Moore's intent is to create a work of art that arouses more than one organ, and both he and Gebbie succeed." -- Peter Landau, Mr. Skin

"Who would have thought that pornography could be redeemed by comics?" -- Paul Gravett, The Independent on Sunday

"The majesty of Moore's prose -- both clever and breathlessly erotic -- is matched by Gebbie's gorgeous paintings. Very definitely not for children, Lost Girls is fiction that's "graphic" in every sense of the word." -- Alonso Duralde, The Advocate

"The narrative structure, visual presentation, and writing within the book are absolutely top-notch. … Lost Girls challenges the way sexuality is presented and treated in Western society." -- Bernard C. Cormier, Here New Brunswick

"Lost Girls' narrative is equal parts sexual imagination and historical fact, riffing on pornography's artistic antecedents in the works of Aubrey Beardsley, Pierre Louys and Stravinsky's infamous The Rite of Spring, while simultaneously re-imagining beloved children's characters as sexually adventurous women in a world that's turning ugly in a hurry. … One of Lost Girls' chief aims is 'to tell people that they are not alone because of the shameful thoughts that go through their heads.' With abstinence-only education, perpetual war and religious hypocrisy all making a resurgence, it's a valuable lesson." -- Scott Thill, RES Magazine

"Porno fiction with a solid story has always been a great utopian goal for a writer: with Lost Girls Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie achieved it. Probably the first pornographic -- not erotica, it's really a porn -- masterpiece." -- Stefano Priarone, Fumo di China (Italy)

"Being both elegant and explicit, refined and raunchy, it aims to obliterate the idea that there's a difference between pornography and erotica. ... And their blending of the elegant with the really, really dirty is an admirable achievement that pays porn the respect of believing it's worth doing well." -- Charles Taylor, The Phoenix

"Moore isn't just taking perverse glee in soiling beloved childhood classics with adult sexuality; he's re-imagining sexual lives as fairy-tale adventures, full of mystery, wonder, and terror, populated with colorful companions, mentors, and villains. ... Lost Girls exalts sex and storytelling, and memory and imagination, as our fragile but ineradicable defenses against the dumb, brutal forces of war and time …" -- Tim Kreider, Baltimore City Paper

"Melinda Gebbie draws the girls right on the cusp of realism: They are, like the colors Gebbie has chosen, soft and rich and fleshy. Even those pictures depicting gross sexual acts are absolutely gorgeous." -- Davida Marion, The Stranger

"This is a collossal achievement, a work of considerable art and artifice, a book that demands to be read (deserves to have attention lavished upon it as Wendy, Dorothy and Alice lavish attention upon one another) and reread and reread and reread." -- Bookmunch.co.uk

"Alan Moore is one of the greatest creators of the 20th century and if his work over the past six years hasn’t made him one of the greatest creators of the 21st century then his new graphic novel, Lost Girls, will make that so. … Lost Girls is 400 pages of the some of the best, most exciting and all around hot pornography I’ve ever read. No, it’s not the grunting and heaving of most DVD porno nor the “how many taboos can we put in” sensibility of Penthouse letters but it is a sexually charged and beautiful story of three women (and men and more women) who share their graphic intimate exploits and have many sexual affairs." -- Daniel Robert Epstein, Suicide Girls

"Lost Girls is more than its surface appearance. It's a challenge to readers and to critics. It's eye opening. It's a history lesson of classic erotica. It's tender at moments, heartbreakingly lovely at others, while virtually every reader will find some page that makes them uncomfortable. It's undeniably breathtakingly beautiful. It's Moore and Gebbie's plea for more works like this -- more works that engage the sexual imagination. … Lost Girls is Moore and Gebbie's way of reclaiming pornography, wresting it from the hands of simple smut peddlers and producers who merely crank out tripe to appeal to baser instincts. It has very strong messages about sexuality (obviously), as well as free speech, and even the horror of war. … Lost Girls operates on at least two fronts, first and foremost as a work of art, and secondly, as a flag firmly planted, claiming (or reclaiming) free, artistic expression as the birthright of all creators." -- Matt Brady, Newsarama

"Three very different women meet by chance and discover that they have something in common: each of them experienced … a cataclysmic event that triggered their sexual awakening, and they need to share these experiences with each other, both in telling and experiencing, in order to come to terms with them, in order to heal and move on… The book is also unashamedly pornographic, a Molotov Cocktail thrown into the arena of the cultural debate about Pornography and free speech. … While some people might decry the taboo sexual acts, they ignore the fact that Lost Girls is a dense literary and postmodernist work. Even the most salacious-minded reader would eventually begin to notice that there is, in fact, a story and several themes being explored in the 330-page graphic novel. In fact, the sex may be less interesting than what it is being used to say. … The graphic novel deconstructs and comments on classic children's stories and reconstitutes them as overtly pornographic allegories about adolescent sexual awakening, the power of fantasy, Sex as Power, and Sex as a means of coping with trauma and as a means to heal. It also overtly identifies itself as not reality, but a fantasy, mere words and drawings featuring fantasy characters rather than real people or real acts. And it also acknowledges that part of the appeal of Pornography is as a means for the reader to thrill to fantasies that transgress social taboos like incest without actually committing any such acts in real life. It follows a well-established tradition in European Pornographic Literature dating back several Centuries, including the works of the Marquis de Sade, full of far worse fantasies of rape, domination and outright brutality, to those written under assumed names by gentlemen (and some ladies) for gentlemen. Moore has also cited the use of Pornography as a safety valve and a means to safely explore thoughts and impulses." -- Adi Tantimedh, Comic Book Resources

"Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie have created a groundbreaking work of genius in Lost Girls. … Lost Girls is hallucinatory, elegant, and profoundly arousing, a masterpiece of more than one genre, apocalyptic in its intensity and its ultimate message. … After more than one read of this mind-blowing work, it's the ending that resonates at the deepest level, forcing the reader to look at the double edge sword of sexual liberation, what we use sex to feel or not feel, to see or not see, the erotization of violence. I have had only a few experiences that have so deeply challenged and excited me. Read Lost Girls, and I dare you not to be changed." -- Lisa Alvarado, Bloodstone and Orchids

"Holy penetration, Batman! … Alan Moore, arguably the greatest comics writer of all time … now takes on erotica with a work of hardcore pornography that is as beautiful as it is controversial, arousing as it is disturbing. … With Lost Girls, Mr. Moore is doing for erotica what Watchmen did for superhero comics -- elevating what many consider to be a crass, pulp medium to art." -- Blair Butler, Geek Monthly